The former Serie A referee Gianpaolo Calvarese analyzes the Baldanzi-Kyriakopoulos case after the many controversies that followed the weekend: “We need uniformity. In football, as in law, an episode becomes a benchmark for professionals given that the regulation is difficult to interpret. Simplify everything it’s even more difficult. The problem arises not about yesterday, but about the awarding of the penalty to Verona last week with a VAR intervention for a very minor thing”, he said during an interview with Messenger.
Gervasoni certified that Kyriakopoulos’ foul on Baldanzi was not a foul.
“The refereeing and the rules are really difficult. I understand the desire to standardize some issues such as step on foot, but we must never lose sight of the quality of the referee made up of details. In a fight it must be understood that the ball is on the ground or in the air, what the player’s objective is, whether to jump, anticipate the opponent, or other. These are details that are not codified.”
Was the one on Baldanzi a foul or not?
“Starting from Mourinho (modern penalties) through Baroni, Fonseca, Gotti, they are penalties that the insiders don’t like, but if they are also assigned to VAR then a common line must be adopted. This is almost the same as Lecce-Milan of the year last called by VAR”.
Why wasn’t he warned by VAR?
“Given that for CAN this is not a penalty, listening to the audio of the dialogue between the referee and VAR it was said that it is “a small step on foot”. I believe that small or large does not give the right interpretation to an event and this is where the quality of the referee and VAR comes into play.”